Stop uranium train - Feds to ship DU to Utah soon

[ensho]

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_13995799


Despite concerns that the plan could be a figurative train wreck, a train load of depleted uranium is set to depart the federal Department of Energy's Savannah River Site in South Carolina, bound for Utah.

The DOE announced last week that the first of three train loads of the radioactive waste will soon be shipped as part of a project in which federal stimulus money is unfairly being used to clean up the Palmetto State at the Beehive State's expense. In all, 14,800 drums containing 11,000 tons of DU, a byproduct of uranium enrichment, are earmarked for EnergySolutions' low-level radioactive waste disposal facility at Clive in Tooele County.

But the decision to ship is premature because the verdict is still out on the best way to dispose of DU.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, while classifying DU as Class A waste suitable for disposal at Clive, has never actually studied the risks posed by burying large quantities of the material in shallow landfills like EnergySolutions' Utah dump. That review, which is expected to take several years to complete, is still in the early stages. Plus, Utah's Radiation Control Board is requiring EnergySolutions to write a technical report assessing the long-term safety of the site, a process that will take about a year.

Because those studies are still under way, the DOE should steer the train onto a siding. A more misguided, ill-timed shipping schedule is unimaginable, especially since DU poses no short-term threat. The drums of waste can, and should, sit safely at the Savannah site until state and federal regulators determine exactly where, and how, these radioactive leftovers from the uranium enrichment process should be buried. And it's hard to imagine that EnergySolutions' Utah landfill, which is designed to accept waste that remains dangerous for only 100 years, is an appropriate site.

Depleted uranium is a bomb with a very long fuse. The material, which becomes more radioactive over time, does not currently exceed the state's hazard standards for Class A waste. But it will continue to grow hotter and more dangerous for the next million years, and could eventually contaminate a wide area if the level of the Great Salt Lake rises, floods the disposal facility and disperses the material, an event that some scientists say is inevitable.
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I learned something new - it grows hotter with time. egads!

it should stay where it is until they learn what to do with it safely.

but then it could flood in Savanna too. climate change will not wait for anything.

[FLPanhandle]

1. It's not safe where it is either

and worse radio-active materials are transported daily on our highways.

[MineralMan]

2. They're shipping DU to Utah?

I won't go. If DU moves to Utah, it's all over for me here.

Oh, wait...

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. OMG I won't go either

[MineralMan]

6. Couldn't resist...

:bounce:

[YOY]

7. I dunno...if we stuck together in a tightly knit community and deny them admittance...

they might eventually get a taste of their own medicine.

[Crabby Appleton]

18. I'm not going, Utah sucks! nt

[Romulox]

3. Frankly, Utah sounds like a fine place for this material to me.

Utah gets a lot of benefit from being one of 50 US States. Time to take one for the team! :hi:

[izquierdista]

10. It's the perfect place for it

It won't harm the people there, because they have magic underwear to protect them.

[Romulox]

13. Even better--they have sparse population density and lots of desert.

At any rate, why should the people of SC be subjected to it?

[midnight]

5. k&R. Why isn't safety at the forefront?

[unhappycamper]

8. The military's been disposing of depleted uranium for a long time now.

[ensho]

14. true

nt

[TheWraith]

16. Uh, there's no such thing as a depleted uranium mortar.

And depleted uranium is still less toxic than lead. Just FYI.

[unhappycamper]

22. Only if it's not burned as in shooting DU thru a gun barrel.

Here's some google images of depleted uranium birth defects.

**CAUTION*** Some may find these images disturbing


http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=depleted%20uranium%20birth%20defects&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi


This first pic is a 120mm tank round.

[FBaggins]

24. Incorrect

It doesn't become remarkably more deadly for firing through a gun barrel (except in the most obvious way - velocity)...


...and those are NOT "DU birth defects".

[SidDithers]

9. Can you please explain how DU becomes "hotter" over time?...

'Cause I don't think that's right.

Sid

[FBaggins]

17. It does... but in reality that's a non-issue

The uranium itself doesn't become more radioactive, but as it decays, it creates "daughter" isotopes which themselves are radioactive. Many of them are MUCH more radioactive (on a gram-by-gram basis) but exist in incredibly tiny amounts.

Eventually (long before man came on the scene), the substance reaches an equilibrium with certain proportions of each daughter and a fairly constant activity level.

Now... imagine that you then mine this uranium and pull out the most radioactive parts (for bombs and reactors). The material that is left is "depleted" of these more radioactive parts and is much LESS radioactive than the "natural" ore was originally. The trick here is that it is no longer in equilibrium with its daughter isotopes. So as the now-depleted material decays (ever so slowly), the proportion of the material that is these more active components grows and grows... which makes the overall material "more radioactive".

The problem with this is that this process would take millions of years to complete... and would only then return to the radioactivity level of "natural" uranium ore (which itself isn't particularly dangerous).

[SidDithers]

19. Ahh, the OP is referring to the decay chain...

I was wondering if that's where they were going.

I agree, the Thorium and Polonium down chain are "hotter" than the U238 at the top of the chain. But, as you said, DU (essentially U238), with it's 4.5 billion year half-life, is practically stable.

While technically correct, DU getting "hotter" over time is a somewhat misleading statement.

Sid

Edit: took out incorrect statement

[Umbral]

25. Thanks, I was puzzling over the notion of magical entropy-deifying Uranium. nt

[FBaggins]

11. Such concerns are misplaced.

DU is by no means this much of a concern.

Natural uranium is incredibly common and is MORE active than DU. Yes, DU will slowly become "more dangerous" and "more radioactive" over time... but it won't even get back UP to the "normal" level in a million years. Using such terms (as well as "bomb/fuse" etc) is scaremongering at best.

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. It is about a million years that it takes to get back to 'natural' level

There's a javascript calculator here you can experiment with: http://www.wise-uranium.org/rccu.html

The activity stays pretty level for about 10,000 years, and then slowly goes up to the natural (ie in equilibrium with all progeny) level (about 6 times the alpha activity of depleted uranium, and 3 times the beta activity).

[FBaggins]

21. Can't access it at work to check,

but I'm a big fan of the wise-uranium website.

[nyc 4 Biden]

12. DU is toxic waste?!

lol

[HopeHoops]

15. Has anyone warned Skinner that DU's being shipped to Utah?

Does that mean we all have to become Mormans?

[comtec]

23. I'm sorry but THEY pushed for prop 8 and Prop 1, let them eat "cake"

My sympathy simply does not exist for Utah on this issue.
They WANT to be the asshole of america, they can start reaping the rewards!

The morons should know better than to be blatant haters, considering mormon hunting used to be a LEGAL sport!

Let the assholes glow!